‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ and ‘You’re the Worst’ Start a Funny Conversation About Depression
In the past, TV audiences often turned on “the tube” at night to lose themselves in some flashy, splashy entertainment — often featuring idealistic families, friendships and romances with people living impossibly glamorous and sexy lives. TV was thought of as escapist entertainment, populated with characters we could aspire to be like.
In this new “golden age of TV,” and the rise of antiheroes as well as a possibly more realistic approach to our lives and what we want to see represented on-screen, characters on TV are now being allowed to be complex and relatable even in uncomfortable ways.
This desire for realistic and multi-faceted characters and plots has coincided with an increased willingness to acknowledge and discuss mental illness on-screen– specifically depression and anxiety (depression effects on average 6.7% of American adults, while anxiety disorders afflict about 18% of American adults [Source]). Gone is the expectation that we want to use TV to forget our “troubles.” Instead, we want to see ourselves on TV. In addition to the fight for representation of the varied races, genders and sexuality present in the world we live in, viewers are also eager to see a representation of their psychological and physical challenges as well.
While dramas have often touched on sensitive topics — including various mental disorders, addictions, and traumas — comedies previously remained a sanctuary for “good times.” Somehow, those days have ended. A few, unique comedies are leading the charge on spotlighting struggles with depression, and somehow doing so while retaining their sharp senses of humor and character.
There are several comedies that have briefly discussed, or mentioned various disorders — Girls depicted OCD, Broad City allows Ilana to casually mention her antidepressants, and Jane the Virgin is currently dealing with post-partum depression — but there are two shows in particular that deal head-on with depressed characters and work to incorporate their struggle into their A-plots and methods of storytelling.
The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and FXX’s You’re the Worst spent the majority of their previous seasons exploring the daily battle with depression and anxiety, through two complex but very different and unique women.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — created by Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom (who just won Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards for her lead performance) — knows its title is polarizing. If the word “crazy” doesn’t make you initially cringe, then the fact that it’s a musical will definitely leave you confused. What is this show? What is it doing?
Well, as a musical naturally should, it has a title song that does a lot in communicating the situation protagonist Rebecca Bunch has found herself in:
The Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III) she mentions is her long-ago summertime camp sweetheart. They were never very serious (which that description should make clear), but he was sweet and simple and she had fun with him. She isn’t having fun now. He describes his hometown — an objectively unremarkable place to everyone else — and Rachel hears a place that’s full of happiness and love. She is someone who hasn’t felt real happiness in several years (after receiving a promotion she has a panic attack while trying to convince herself: “this is what happy feels like”), and so she makes a rash decision in order to chase that happiness.
We see her throw away her medication — a decision that does come back to bite her — and go deep into self-denial about why she’s in West Covina anyway. Part of the show’s brilliance is that it deconstructs the “romantic comedy.” Rebecca and her best-friend sidekick, Paula (Donna Lynne Champlin), scheme and plot to win Josh away from his vain and controlling girlfriend Valencia (Gabrielle Ruiz), doing things that in a romantic comedy are considered “normal” (such as Rebecca following Josh to Hawaii on a trip she wasn’t invited on so they don’t “lose momentum”), but which in real life would warrant concern about the woman who is doing those things.*
The show might sound a little heavy at this point: don’t worry; it is truly hilarious and offbeat. The musical numbers — an average of three per episode — are often biting and hilarious, exploring anything in Rebecca’s or her friend’s life, from “heavy boobs” to getting ready for a night out, but they can also be really affecting. The jokes and the music allow Rebecca to cope (this was implied through the structure of the show, but Rebecca admitted as much in a recent episode) with her various struggles and emotions in a way that isn’t so heavy. Depression and anxiety isn’t always sleeping all day and crying, but when Rebecca does hit her low-point she turns it into a song to convey exactly how awful she feels and how glamorous she wishes it could actually be, like those sexy black and white French films.
Imagining her life as a musical makes it more bearable than facing the reality. Not being able to get dressed is a lot easier to address when you’re imagining that you are just a lounging Parisienne.
You’re the Worst aired its first season on FX in 2014. It was an under-watched, but critically praised show that has the distinction of being essentially a romance in which both major participants are fighting against falling in love every step of the way. Not because they don’t like each other, though, but because they are scared of commitment, losing their edge, or heartbreak. Or possibly all three of those things.
It is one of the best — if not the best — shows out there to portray modern dating and means of (mis)communication. Season one was a funny and biting view at “millennial” dating and cynicism towards romance that ends with the characters facing a more serious relationship than they had intended to have.
Season two, which aired last fall on FX’s specialty channel FXX, approached the couple — Gretchen (Aya Cash) and Jimmy (Chris Geere) — and their struggles with maturity and commitment in their usual caustic way. Then, halfway through the season, it was revealed that Gretchen was suffering from a particularly challenging resurgence of her clinical depression, a situation she had found herself in a few times before in her past, but declined to mention to Jimmy.
The show’s exploration of Gretchen’s depression covers all the major bases: her attempts to ignore the inexplicable sadness creeping up on her, to tuck it out of her life with Jimmy and to laugh and drink it off. Then we see her lashing out at those around her, callously telling them off because she doesn’t see any worth in them or herself anymore. Gradually she falls into a numb, nearly catatonic state where even the antics of her ludicrous best friend Lindsay (Kether Donohue) can’t shock her.
The representation of her struggle is sympathetic and unflinching. Somehow, the writers manage to wring comedic moments out of a wrenching situation. In the following clip, Gretchen unleashes a lot of anger towards her friends, signaling to us and them that something is going on. It’s uncomfortable and tense, but you can’t help but laugh at the punch-lines they throw in there:
The show remains a comedy, and gets you to laugh through your discomfort with Gretchen’s emotions. It breaks the ice that often forms when mental illness is brought to the table, and allows a conversation to begin. The show also acknowledges that Gretchen is not a fun person when she’s like this, and she isn’t “trying to help herself,” but it also has her explicitly tell her friends that she can’t. Whatever you want her to do, she just cannot. More importantly, she tries to make clear to Jimmy that she “cannot be fixed.” This is just how her brain is wired, and there is no catchall one-step solution.
Jimmy, being a somewhat petty and stubborn fool, refuses to accept that fact and spends several episodes attempting to get Gretchen out of her depressed state. You’re the Worst uses Jimmy’s cluelessness to wring comedy out of an otherwise emotional situation. The choice to do this accomplishes several things: first, and most importantly, it helps to create a discussion about depression and the loved ones of those who have it. While suffering from depression is not easy in the slightest, being close to someone who is suffering can be equally daunting. What do you say? Can you help? They’re telling me they don’t care, or they don’t want to see me, so should I believe them? There is a lot of confusion about how to treat people with mental illness — especially depression, which the more callous non-sufferers would describe as “being sad” — and miscommunication over what is “best” for a depressed person.
Jimmy’s futile battle to “fix” Gretchen is funny because it brings out his worst, most immature qualities, but it also makes clear to those who aren’t so familiar with depression that Gretchen truly cannot be fixed. Jimmy treating Gretchen to a cool haunted house isn’t going to “cure her.” Gretchen’s eventual frustration with Jimmy for failing to take her word on her unfix-able state also makes clear that sometimes when a depressed friend says that there’s nothing you can do, you have to believe them. All you can do is stay with them, and acknowledge that they are suffering and are not just “very sad” or “in a funk.”
Gretchen’s depression eventually forces Jimmy to learn how to deal and to step-up and reach out and basically commit to his feelings for her. They spent two seasons skirting around the idea that they deeply care about each other, but when Jimmy decides to stay with Gretchen he makes it clear that he’s all in. By the end of the second season, Gretchen’s experience had exposed viewers to a rare look into everyday life as a clinically depressed person, as well as the experience of loving someone who suffers. It also created a compelling — and funny –arc for the show’s lead characters, and deepened their personalities and relationship. The third season has a lot to live up to.
The successful execution of shows such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and You’re the Worst have solidified the idea that TV doesn’t need to be about characters that are “better” than us (more glamorous, successful, attractive, competent or whatever that means for you). They can have relatable traits and struggles that a large portion of the population have suffered with to some degree, while still leading shows that are entertaining and even funny. When we can laugh about something, we can really start to feel comfortable acknowledging its existence and talking about it.
These two shows accomplish that feat, and also craft real and interesting characters that have disorders but aren’t defined by them. This helps people who are uninformed about mental illness see a representation of a depressed person and see that they are more than their sadness, and helps people who do suffer first-hand realize that their experience is not unusual. The landscape of television should reflect the world we live in, from how we look and love to how we struggle as well. Characters and stories like those found in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and You’re the Worst are moving us closer and closer to the world where we can recognize our lives on TV and use the medium as an opportunity to learn about one another and understand our different experiences.
*Salon recently published an essay on male romantic leads and their frequently alarming behavior (e.g. stalking). It’s a great read, and an interesting lens to watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend through.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend recent episodes are available on Hulu, and for free on cwtv.com. It airs Monday nights at 8pm EST on the CW.
You’re the Worst season one is available on Hulu, and both seasons are on iTunes.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend photos and clips property of CW/CBS/WB ; You’re the Worst photos and clips property of FX Networks and all are used here for illustration and analysis purposes only.
Love what you read? Want to follow us closer to get all the latest Legendary Women news? Then sign up for our monthly newsletter and our Medium collection. Also check out our podcast!
The author is active on Twitter @yourbeth_friend and writes weekly about TV (including both of these shows!) and Movies here
